Out and About
by Mars1040
Summary: Would a professional art thief be considered "professional" without any work? After being blacklisted in the business and being stuck in a rut after a month of unemployment, Nina Pinheiro decides to answer a vague job posting and finds herself being employed by Victor Sullivan. But after being whisked away to Japan, she realizes she has no idea what lies in store for her.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: To my followers: Hey look, I'm not dead! To everyone else: Welcome!  
So I started this one as a Choose Your Own Adventure story on Archive of Our Own that (as of the publishing date of this story) is currently ongoing. The reason why it's not on here is because interactive stories (like CYOAs or anything in the second person) are not allowed on this website. If you're interested in that sort of thing, you can look for it at AO3, it's under the same title and I use the same pen name. It's currently twenty-seven chapters in and updated on a regular basis.  
With this version, I took the story out of the second person and into the third person and I made the protagonist an actual character rather than the reader's surrogate. I also fixed the writing so that it flows better (I admit, having to adhere to a schedule impacts my writing in a negative way). And also, I merged several chapters together in a way that makes sense. All in all, I consider **this** version of Out and About to be the definitive version.

Disclaimer: I do not own Uncharted or any of its characters. I was assisted with the writing of this story by the story's followers on Archive of Our Own through the use of polls and I would like to take this time to thank them for their assistance. Hey, this disclaimer has an actual purpose now.

Out and About  
 **Chapter 1**

Nina was in a rut, there was no doubt about it anymore. She had not gotten any work for over a month. Her days consisted of waking up, heating up frozen waffles and bacon for breakfast, streaming random movies on Netflix until lunch, which usually consisted of microwave food, then exercising until she got tired, eating dinner then going back to Netflix.

One day, she had finally decided that enough is enough, she needed to get out of this rut. She had to find another job one way or another…

…because her last rent payment emptied her bank account.

The usual job postings site had not been yielding any results, so she decided to try another. The first job posting she had seen on this new website piqued her interest.

Job Opening for Personal Assistant

Duties Include:  
Organizing files  
Checking email  
Taking notes  
Performing errands

Requirements:  
Willing to travel  
Sense of adventure  
Accepting of smoking  
An open mind

The vagueness and the wording of the ad struck Nina as odd-especially the "open mind" requirement-but everything else about it seemed professional enough. In fact, she applied to more professional-looking job openings only to find that it was a scam. She sent a cover letter to the email provided and hoped that she was not applying to be cast in a porn video…

…again.

Two days later she found out that she had been called in for a job interview for this job. After making sure that the address was legitimate, she put on her most professional outfit and headed out.

Upon arriving at the address, she was almost put off by a sketchy-looking man stepping out for a smoke break. At first, she thought that this is who would be interviewing her, a chain-smoking career criminal. The man did not frighten her, in fact, it was quite the opposite: he attracted her. Though, it was in a way that frightened her, as harsh memories of her last boyfriend rushed back to her. However, she got a grip over herself relatively quickly; Nina Pinheiro was not the type to be dissuaded by some guy looking like some escaped convict. Besides, if he were the one interviewing her, he would be waiting for her inside.

She ignored him and entered the the building. In the lobby was a security guard sitting at his desk who was more interested in his phone than his job. After several attempts, she finally got his attention; he was more annoyed than anything. She explained to him that she had a job interview at this address but did not know which office to go to. With a heavy sigh, he opened an appointment book on his desk, had her sign next to the appointment for her interview and directed her to the office. When she thanked him, he rudely shrugged it off and went back to his phone. She wondered how much money they actually put into security for this building.

When Nina got to the door, she knocked on it and announced herself.

"Come on in, it's open!" a voice welcomed her.

She opened the door and found a medium-sized office with two desks and papers and files everywhere in a disorganized mess. She quickly realized why the job posting was so vague: there was a lot of work to be done here. Sitting at one of the desks was a man who looked like he was approaching his sixties, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and an impressive mustache.

Nina knew exactly who he was: Victor Sullivan, professional smuggler and purveyor of stolen goods. She had never dealt with him personally, but plenty of her previous employers did business with him. Despite her lack of interaction with him, he still seemed to recognize her.

"Well, well, well, I never expected someone like you to answer an ad for a PA," he said.

She shrugged in embarrassment as she realized just how low she had hit-this was one of the other reasons why she was so uneasy about seeing the shady man outside. A year ago, she had been considered one of the best art thieves in the world; but, here she was, applying for menial labor for minimum wage. This moment definitely qualified as one of the most embarrassing moments in her life.

Part of her to run off and have nothing to do with Sullivan, but the rest of her knew that she needed this job-especially now that she had a connection back to the business.

He stuck out his hand for her to shake, "Pinheiro, isn't it?"

She uneasily took it, "I prefer Nina, Mr. Sullivan."

"Well Nina, take a seat so we can start this interview," he offered Nina the chair opposite him. She sat down and regained her composure, mentally preparing herself for the questions he would be asking. "Now, normally, I would be asking all the usual job interview questions, but I think a different line of questioning is in order." She nodded, bracing herself for the inevitable question: "Why would you apply for a plain old PA job?"

"Because no one else will hire me," Nina blurted out. She might as well get it over with quick.

"Now why is that?" he pressed, mostly out of curiosity.

"I…messed up," she explained slowly. "I left a mark on the forgery to replace the painting on my last job. They knew the painting was stolen the next day."

"So, the painting became hot," Sullivan concluded.

She nodded, "My client lost a lot of money and made sure I wouldn't get hired again."

"Now that's a damn shame," he sympathized. "But how do you leave a mark on the painting?"

She shrugs, "I must've brushed too hard when putting the forgery in the frame."

"You smudged it."

She nods again, not knowing what else to say as hot shame crawled down her back.

"You know, I'm no art expert, but a good painting wouldn't smudge so easily. It sounds to me like you client was too cheap to afford a good forgery and blamed you for the mess."

Nina was surprised to hear that Sullivan is on her side. She had been so used to being turned away and blamed for the incident that she did not expect anyone to hear her out.

"Besides, it seems like you could use a break," he continued, " So I'll tell you what, you're my last interview for this job, and frankly the only one who's cut out for this line of work. So what do you say we start tomorrow morning?"

Her eyes sparkled, "I got the job?"

"You got the job," he smiled. He got up and grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair, "Come on, I'll show you out."

Sullivan took a cigar out of his jacket pocket and began toying with it. As the two of them walked out of the office the office, they run into the shady-looking man from downstairs.

Sullivan stopped him, "Sam, allow me into introduce our new PA, Nina Pinheiro."

"Is she any different from the last ten girls you interviewed?" the man asked.

She gave the man a coy look, "I like to think I'm different from the other girls."

It was almost an involuntary response; she was attracted to the man after all, despite her past experiences with such men being negative.

He chuckled with good nature as he flirted back, "We'll just have to see, won't we?"

The man introduced himself as Samuel Drake, Sullivan's partner. Sam was a historian and treasure hunter-just what Nina had expected from someone in this line of work. Nina could tell that he loves what he does by the way he spoke about it. She found it admirable for someone to be that enthusiastic about their line of work. To her, Sam definitely seemed like someone she could get to know better.

Then, Nina recalls hearing about Sullivan's partner before-except that his name was _Nathan_ Drake, and that he was _married_. She decided to ask for clarification later, as saying "But I thought your name was Nathan," would definitely ruin the banter that they have going on.

Sullivan cleared his throat to remind the two that he is still there. He explained her background to Sam, who was surprised.

"You don't think you're overqualified?" he asked.

"Maybe I'm more than a personal assistant," she winked.

At this point, it seemed to Nina that Sullivan was very annoyed by the flirting. She wondered if Sam had flirted with all of the other applicants for the job, or perhaps Sullivan was jealous of the attention.

"Sam, I'll tell you more about her later," Sullivan told him, "I'll see you in the office."

Sam nodded and looked back to her, "I'll be seeing you tomorrow then."

"Of course," she smiled at him and accompanied Sullivan downstairs. When the two of them get outside, he lights the cigar almost immediately.

"I've been waiting all day to smoke one of these," he explained. "The landlord is picky when it comes to smoking in his building. He does random inspections to make sure no one does it. Sam and I almost got evicted when our office reeked of tobacco. You see, we had to find a new place quickly. We were interviewing for a PA in our old office, when Sam flat out told one of the girls that we were criminals. She called the cops faster than you could say 'evicted'." He took a drag from his cigar, "Of course, we weren't breaking any laws, so we weren't arrested, but we did have to leave before we had any real attention on us. This was the first place that accepted us."

"So, was Sam doing the interviews before?" Nina asked.

"Yeah, he wasn't making any progress," Sullivan told her, "Kept flirting with the girls. I had to step in so we could actually hire someone."

She understood why he was so eager to get away from Sam. "No wonder you were so salty, I thought maybe that you were jealous of all the attention."

Sullivan laughed at this, "Sweetheart, I don't need to be jealous of Sam." He took a drag from his cigar, "No offense, but none of the girls that we interviewed were…worth the trouble."

She was curious, "In what way?"

"For one thing, they were…a bit lacking in the intelligence department," he explained.

"Well, to be honest, the job posting was suspicious," she said. Then she realized that _she_ was one of the people who answered it, "Wow, what does that say about me?"

"You were desperate," he told her in an attempt to make her feel better. "Believe me, that's a few steps above 'stupid'."

To Nina's surprise, she did feel a little better-it was true after all.

"Anyway Nina," he stuck his hand out for her to shake once more. "I'll be seeing you tomorrow, bright and early at ten o'clock."

She smiled and took his hand, confidently this time. "Thank you Mr. Sullivan."

"Please, my friends call me Sully," he insisted, "Since you have me calling you by your first name, you might as well."

"Okay, thank you Sully." Nina boded him farewell and headed home.

When she got home, she got started on dinner. However, instead of booting up Netflix, she decided to do something different. Thinking about Sam and his enthusiasm about history and treasure hunting and made her want to impress him. She set up her computer to do research on various archeological websites. She also hoped that she would get involved in any jobs the men came across; after all, Nina was an experienced art thief, her skills would definitely come in handy on any job.

When she went to bed, she found herself actually excited for what this new job would bring for her.

A/N: Okay, unlike the AO3 version of this story, I won't be updating this version regularly. If you like where this is going, feel free to check out the story on AO3. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: So this chapter covers from mid-Chapter 3 to early-Chapter 5 of the AO3 version. Some of those chapters are long, some of them are short, I'm going to try and keep things consistent for this version.

Disclaimer: I do not own Uncharted or any of its characters. I was assisted with the writing of this story by the story's followers on Archive of Our Own through the use of polls and I would like to take this time to thank them for their assistance.

Out and About  
 **Chapter 2**

The next morning, Nina arrived at the office to find it locked with the lights off. She had arrived on time—it was just turning ten o'clock. For a moment, she wondered if Sully had forgotten what time he had told her, or that he expected her to be late. She had no way of contacting either Sully or Sam, as she did not have their cellphone numbers—she made a mental note of getting them later on. With nothing else to do she waited until someone showed up. Sure enough, after a few minutes Sully arrived with a tray of three coffees in his hand.

"Hey, I wasn't sure if you were a morning person, so I brought you some coffee," he offered.

"Thanks," Nina said. She already had coffee at home, but she was not about to turn down his kindness-plus she did not think there is such a thing as too much caffeine.

Sully took his keys out of his pocket to unlock the door. "Sam's not much of a morning person so I have a cup of coffee ready for when he comes in, whenever that is."

When the door opened, he placed the tray on his desk. He tossed his jacket off onto a coatrack next to the door and sat in his chair. Nina took her own jacket and placed it on the back of the chair she had sat in during the interview the previous day. Sully reached down and opened a mini-fridge that was hidden from plain view, taking out a carton of creamer to pour in his coffee.

Taking a better look around the office, Nina saw that there was a microwave hidden beneath a pile of books near Sam's desk. Strangely enough, she did not see any type of coffee brewer despite seeing the much more expensive mini-fridge and microwave.

When she asked, Sully replied, "Our last one broke down, we just haven't gotten around to buying a new one."

Maybe you should," she advised as she took her cup. "You'd save money on coffee."

He nodded, "Yeah, the coffee shop around the corner raised their prices a while back."

After adding the appropriate amount of milk and sugar, she began drinking the coffee, and asked about what to do first.

"We could clean up this place for starters," he said. "We could start with my side of the office, Sam gets picky when it comes to his side."

"Let me guess, it's an 'organized mess'," she joked.

"That's right," Sully told her. "I think he's just too goddamn stubborn to let anyone else touch it."

"I'm that way too, kinda," she had to admit. "But it's nothing work related, just my personal stuff."

When the two of them finished their coffee, they got to work on organizing the various papers around Sully's desk. Eventually, Sam trudged in, muttering his "good mornings".

"Good morning," Nina smiled at him, hoping that she would brighten his day. When he groans an incoherent response, she cannot help but feel disappointed.

He grabbed the last cup of coffee and stuck it in the microwave before plopping down at his desk. As she and Sully worked on the desk, Nina repeatedly caught herself stealing glances at the treasure hunter. She internally berates herself, mostly for acting childish about her attraction to the man. This is how is always starts with her: she acts childish, but then when she grows out of this behavior, that is when it would start getting serious—Nina was intent on avoiding that. Besides, he was essentially her boss and she knew that getting romantically involved with her employers will never end well. Still, she knows it will be hard trying to control herself.

After he and Nina made progress on cleaning up the desk, Sully decided that it would be a good time for a smoke break. He invited the younger woman along, but she declined, instead opting to spend some time alone with Sam, as dangerous as that may be. He left her alone with her work and Sam drinking his coffee at his desk.

Despite her best not to, Nina still caught herself looking at Sam; then she saw him take out a flask and pour some of the contents in his coffee. She froze: what was inside had to be alcohol—there was nothing else it could be. She had been watching him practically since he came in; it was possible all of his behavior could not simply have been because he was tired.

"Are you hungover?" Nina asked, deciding to be direct about it.

Sam almost choked on his coffee when he heard this. "No, no, why do you ask?"

She pointed out the fact that she saw him pour something out of a flask and into his coffee.

Embarrassed, he stumbled around the issue until finally, "Fine, I sneak a little alcohol now and again."

She frowned, "That's not good."

"Now, I don't do it all the time," he got defensive. "Just when…"

As he stumbled with his words again, Nina realized he was very uncomfortable with the issue. She did not know him that well, so she figured it was not her place to call him out on it.

"Okay," she stopped him. "You have your reasons."

She returned to work silently but could not get her mind off Sam's problem. No one drinks for no reason—there must have been something that he was hiding. Then, she thought back to Nathan Drake, and how he was related to Sam. For all she knew, Sam and Nathan could be the same person, changing his name for whatever reason. Nathan was said to have been married, so maybe he wanted to get out of his marriage—or perhaps something terrible happened to his wife so Nathan cut all ties to forget and went as far as changing his name.

Nina shook these thoughts from her head and mentally scolded herself for letting her imagination run away with itself. If the situation were that extreme, Sam would not keep the surname "Drake". Still, she wondered if "Nathan Drake" was the reason why Sam began drinking.

After a while, Sully came back, "I hope you two kids behaved yourselves while I was gone."

"No," Nina spoke up. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sam freeze—afraid, perhaps, that she would tell Sully that he was drinking. But that was not her intention at all. "We had a quickie right after you left."

Sam melted in relief as she turned to wink at him, then played along, "Yeah, sorry Victor. But you know what they say—morning sex is the best sex."

Sully chuckled. "It's not morning sex unless you're just getting out of bed."

The rest of the day was uneventful as Nina and Sully continued to their work. The three of them ordered take-out for lunch, making small talk as they ate. Nina managed to show off her newfound archeological knowledge without coming off as bragging, even Sam seemed to be impressed.

The organization work is finished not long after lunch, at least on Sully's side. When considering starting work on Sam's side, part of Nina wanted to put if off until the next day, since it looked like it would take far longer. Although, he did not really "wake up" until around lunch time that day; starting on it right away would be beneficial—or at least when Sam returned from his most recent smoke break.

"Why don't we just call it a day?" Sully decided, "You can get started on Sam's side of the room tomorrow."

Nina gazed over her shoulder at Sam's empty seat. "Wouldn't we just start the same time tomorrow?"

"Nah," he shrugged it off. "I'll just tell Sam to come in early, so he'll be ready to work by ten or eleven tomorrow."

She nodded. "Okay, if you're sure it'll work."

As she grabbed her jacket to leave, Sully stopped her. "You know, I notice how you're looking at Sam."

Nina could feel herself blushing in embarrassment. "I guess I didn't do a good job of hiding it."

He shook his head and leaned on his desk. "Just a word of advice—Sam isn't a very…accessible person. I don't remember him ever having a stable relationship in his life—romance-wise anyway." Nina tried to speak up, but he stopped her, "I don't care what you see in him or anything, it's none of my business. Just be careful, okay?"

"Sully, I'm not going to pursue a relationship with him," she assured him. "I'm attracted to him—that's pretty obvious-but I've been in the business long enough to know not to make it personal with your employers."

He sighed, "You know how many people I've heard that from? And how many people made it personal?"

She crossed her arms confidently, "Well I have a proven track record. I even turned down one of the biggest playboys in the business."

Sully raised one eyebrow, "Let me guess—Marcel Lister." Nina frowned slightly at the correct guess. "The most attractive feature on him, I've heard, was his money. There wasn't much else to go for unless you're into stuck-up rich brats."

She was inclined to agree, there was not anything she found attractive about Marcel. The only reason why Marcel had a "playboy" reputation was because he tended to sleep with his female partners. Of course, she suspected that the partners he did sleep with did it so they could get better pay or a better cut of the profits.

"I'll tell you what," Nina said. "If I do get into a failed relationship with Sam, you're more than welcome to say, 'I told you so.'"

He shrugged. "Alright, I'll see you in the morning."

She bid Sully goodbye and headed downstairs. When she exited the building, Nina saw Sam finishing his cigarette.

"Hey," he greeted her before she could say anything to him. "Thanks for not telling Victor about…you know."

"Of course," she said. "You don't become successful in this business by being a tattle-tale."

He laughed, "Right, right. By the way, Victor told me about what happened to you—"

"Forget it," she tried to brush it off.

"I mean it sucks—"

"Yeah, but it's not like talking about it's going to change anything," she told him.

"Alright," he backed off and stamped out his cigarette. "So, you're finished for the day?"

"That's right, tomorrow we'll start on your side of the office."

He smirked, "So we'll be working together, that's what you're saying."

To her slight dismay, Nina could not help but smile. "Well, yeah."

"I'm looking forward to it," his words made her heart flutter. "You want me to walk you to the end of the block?"

She took him up on his offer, finding no harm in a short walk. There were many things she could talk about with him: his career, her own career, Sully, but there was something that was still bothering her, something that she was afraid of being too personal. There was a high chance that he would get offended by it, but she felt like she had to know.

"So, I heard that Sully's partner was someone named 'Nathan Drake,'" she said, "Any relation?"

He sighed and told her, with slight annoyance, "That would be my little brother."

After seeing his reaction, she began to regret asking. "I'm sorry, do you two not get along or…"

"No, no, I'm sorry," he apologized. "I've been in prison for thirteen years and he's gotten a head start on me with his own treasure hunting career."

She understood immediately, "It must be hard hearing about your younger brother's accomplishments."

"You have no idea," he muttered.

Then, it occurred to her, "Wait, is that why you 'sneak alcohol'?"

At first, it seemed that he was uneasy about the subject matter. Nina was about to drop it when he responded, "It's a little bit of that."

This made her wonder if he actually wanted to talk about it, but when she asked, he politely declined.

"You're a personal assistant Nina, not a shrink," he insisted. Nina was about to respond, but he continued, "Listen, I appreciate you wanting to help me, but this is something I have to deal with on my own, okay?"

As much as she wanted to tell him that this was not something he could handle by himself, Nina realized that she did not know him well enough to tell him so. Instead, she opted to drop the subject entirely. She bid him goodbye and went home.

Upon returning home, Nina made herself dinner and continued doing archeological research. She had to admit, archeology was just as interesting—if not even more so—as the history behind the paintings she had stolen in the past. Even if pursuing Sam did not work out—which was honestly extremely likely to her—she was glad to have met him to get into that sort of thing. She only wished that she got into it sooner.

In the midst of doing her research, Nina thought back on another lover—one whom Sam reminded her of: Ken. He was a smooth-talking con-artist who could talk his way into and out of any situation. The two of them were together for two years, and he was terrible throughout them. He used her, cheated on her, yet she still stayed with him, up until he abandoned her.

She shook these thoughts from her head. She would not be seeing Ken again, and even if she did, she would have nothing to do with him.

A/N: Thanks for reading! And remember: if you want more right now, I have up to Chapter 35 published on Archive of Our Own. It's under the same title and pen name as this fic.


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